Power  from 
on  High 


Rev.  B.  Fay  ^ills 


< 


1 


^ot»er  from  on 

DO  WE  NEED  IT? 
WHAT  IS  IT? 

CAN  WE  GET  IT? 


REV.  B.  FAY  MILLS, 


A.n  address  delivered  at  the  Ninth  International 
Christian  Endeavor  Convention. 


NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO. 

jflemlng  t).  IRevell  Com»ans, 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature, 


Sa'ered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  iSgo  "try 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL 


in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


DO  WE  NEED  IT?  WHAT  IS  IT? 

CAN  WE  GET  IT? 

Our  topic  as  it  will  be  divided,  will 
have  reference,  first,  to  the  necessity  for 
the  Power  from  on  high;  second,  to  its 
character;  and  third,  to  the  conditions 
of  its  attainment.  In  other  words.  Why 
do  we  need  it?  What  is  it?  and.  How 
may  we  get  it? 

There  are  three  classes  of  people,  and 
only  three,  who  are  Christians,  in  the 
church  of  Christ.  The  first  class  are  in 
the  church  because  they  want  to  be  saved ; 
and  what  they  mean  by  being  saved  is  to 
get  some  sort  of  an  entrance  into  what 
they  call  heaven.  They  are  not  at  all  con¬ 
cerned  about  the  salvation  of  other  peo¬ 
ple.  There  is  another  class  of ’people 
who  are  concerned  about  their  fellow  men, 
but  they  believe  that  the  way  to  bring 
them  to  God  is  by  using  such  means 
as  may  lie  in  themselves,  with  wisdom 


4 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


and  discretion,  for  this  purpose.  These 
people  have  a  good  deal  to  say  about  the 
latent  power  that  exists  in  the  church  of 
God.  There  is  no  such  thing.  There  is 
no  power,  latent  or  expressed,  in  the 
church  of  God.  Power  is  just  as  distinct 
from  the  church  of  God  as  steam  is  dis¬ 
tinct  from  the  engine  that  it  moves,  or  as 
life  is  distinct  from  the  earth  that  seems 
to  bring  it  forth. 

The  third  class  of  peopie  are  those 
who  realize  this  and  have  learned  that 
"Power  belongeth  unto  God,”  and  that  it 
is  only  as  we  have  power  from  on  high 
that  we  have  spiritual  power  at  all. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  church’s  his¬ 
tory,  all  the  disciples  belonged  to  the 
third  class.  The  promise  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  should  be  given  to  these  disciples 
meant  a  definite  thing  to  them.  It  meant 
nothing  less  than  this:  that  the  impossi¬ 
ble  should  become  possible,  and  that 
they  should  have  power  for  whatever  they 
were  given  to  do.  They  knew  what  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
meant.  It  meant  "The  power  that  had 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGi^. 


5 


made  psalmists  and  prophets  and  law 
givers;”  it  meant  the  power  that  had 
caused  Moses  to  break  the  chains  that 
bound  the  enslaved  people  of  God;  it 
meant  the  power  that  had  enabled  Joshua 
to  lead  them  in  triumph  into  the  promised 
land,  and  had  stayed  the  sun  and  moon  at 
his  word  of  command  until  God  had  giv¬ 
en  the  victory  to  Israel ;  it  meant  that 
which  had  been  as  a  coal  of  fire  from  off 
God’s  altar  to  Isaiah ;  it  meant  that  which 
made  the  sword  of  Gideon  the  sword  of 
Almighty  God ;  it  meant  that  which  made 
the  word  of  Daniel  mightier  than  the 
word  of  a  king  and  a  thousand  of  his 
lords.  And  they  had  need  of  some  such 
power  as  this.  The  task  that  had  been 
given  them  was  a  hard  one — nay,  it  was 
an  impossible  one.  As  Arthur  has  said 
in  his  Tongue  of  Fire,  it  was  a  new  re¬ 
ligion  and  a  poverty-stricken  one,  without 
a  history,  without  a  priesthood,  without 
a  college,  without  a  patron.  It  had  no 
presses;  it  had  no  literature ;  it  had  none 
of  our  modern  means  of  influencing  mass¬ 
es  of  men.  It  was  cast  solely  on  the  one 


6  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

instrument  of  the  tongue,  and  in  that  re¬ 
spect  it  was  destitute  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  Greek  and  of  the  skill  of  the  scribe. 
It  was  seldom  favored  with  an  opportun¬ 
ity  of  addressing  the  same  congregations 
or  the  same  individuals.  It  was  destitute 
of  prestige;  it  was  contemptible  in  num¬ 
bers;  it  was  rustic  in  manners  and 
thwarted  by  circumstances.  With  only 
its  two  sacraments  and  its  tongue  of  fire, 
on  it  went,  and  on,  overturning  its  enemies 
and  advancing  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
from  the  day  when,  in  the  upper  chamber, 
that  little  band  heard  the  sound  as  of  a 
mighty  rushing  wind,  and  down  from 
heaven,  through  the  roof,  came  tongues  of 
fire  that  rested  upon  them.  Their  em¬ 
blem  was  a  tongue  of  fire — man’s  voice, 
God’s  truth;  man’s  speech,  God’s  inspira¬ 
tion;  a  human  agent  and  the  divine  pow¬ 
er.  And  this  power  was  adequate  for  their 
impossible  task.  It  was  able  to  trans¬ 
form  these  disciples,  who,  before  they 
received  it,  were  as  timid  as  sheep,  until 
they  were  as  brave  as  lions.  “It  had  pow¬ 
er  to  make  the  man  who  trembled  at  the 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  •j 

word  of  a  maid-servant  until  he  had  de¬ 
nied  his  Master,  charge  home  upon  the 
rulers  of  the  Jews,  the  murder  of  Jesus, 
until  they  cried  in  deep  concern :  ‘Men 
and  Brethren,  What  shall  we  do?^” 

I  do  not  think  I  ever  realized  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  this  emblem  of  fire  until  I  thought 
of  it  in  connection  with  the  great  fire 
which  I  witnessed  in  the  city  of  Boston. 
I  remember  on  that  awful  night,  standing 
on  one  of  the  busiest  corners  of  the  whole 
city.  A  boy  at  school,  I  had  come  into 
the  city  and  had  passed  under  the  ropes 
which  held  the  crowd  back  from  the  fire, 
and  I  stood  near  the  place  where  the  flames 
were  rapidly  destroying  one  of  those  great 
buildings.  I  remember  how  the  fire  came 
to  the  corner  of  the  street,  and  How  it 
seemed  as  if  it  had  no  power  to  go  far¬ 
ther.  There  it  was,  playing  with  the 
building,  while  it  burned  out  the  wood¬ 
work  that  was  in  it.  But  on  the  other 
side  of  the  street  all  was  dark  and  dead- 
-  There  seemed  to  be  no  ray  of  light 
and  no  spark  of  fire.  Then  suddenly, 
almost  without  warning,  this  mighty  force 


8 


POWEK  PkuM  on  high. 


overleaped  the  street  and  the  building  on 
the  other  side  burst  into  flames;  and  then, 
just  as  when  a  match  is  touched  to  the 
shavings  that  fill  the  stove,  with  a  great 
roar  the  fire  swept  through  the  block  of 
stone  and  brick  and  iron  until  it  melted 
at  its  touch.  It  seemed  as  though  in  a 
few  short  moments  the  heart  of  that  city 
had  vanished  at  the  touch  of  this  awful 
element.  This  is  the  emblem  that  is  given 
to  the  church  of  God — the  tongue  of  fire. 

Was  this  power  needed  only  for  primary 
conquest?  Was  it  a  special  gift  designed 
for  the  founders  and  the  founding  of  Chris¬ 
tianity?  Can  God’s  work  now  be  suc¬ 
cessfully  prosecuted  without  it,  and  are 
we  now  to  depend  on  human  wisdom,  hu¬ 
man  learning,  human  experience  and  hu¬ 
man  energy?  Has  the  day  of  miraculous 
spiritual  power  passed  by?  Can  any  in¬ 
fluence  in  this  day  of  our  great  advance¬ 
ment  reach  men — can  it  penetrate  minds, 
can  it  search  hearts,  can  it  burn  dross, 
can  it  melt  prejudice,  can  it  consume  sin, 
can  it  refine  character — save  the  touch  of 
the  fire  that  fell  on  Pentecost?  Do  we 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  9 

not  say,  "No,  there  is  no  other  influence,” 
with  our  lips,  while  we  say,  "Yes”  with 
our  lives?  Do  we  not  pray  as  though  we 
were  dependent  upon  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
then  live  and  plan  and  work  as  though  we 
were  dependent  only  on  ourselves? 

i  am  an  optimist  of  the  optimists.  I 
believe  mere  has  never  dawned  upon  the 
church  of  God  a  brighter  day  than  this 
upon  which  we  are  here  assembled ;  but 
I  believe  that  when  a  church  door  swings 
open,  when  a  prayer  is  offered  or  a  song 
is  sung  or  a  sermon  is  preached,  and  these 
things  are  not  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  they  are  useless.  Nay,  more,  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  they  are  a  curse.  Churches  mul¬ 
tiply  and  ministers  increase,  but  the  shin¬ 
ing  face  and  the  burning  tongue  are  far  to 
seek  and  hard  to  find.  Some  one  has 
well  said  that  on  the  day  of  the  Pente¬ 
cost  one  sermon  converted  three  thou¬ 
sand  souls,  but  that  today  it  seems  as 
though  it  took  three  thousand  sermons 
to  convert  one  soul.  We  have  our  ca¬ 
thedrals  and  temples  and  tabernacles  and 
churches  and  chapels;  we  build  our  sem- 


lo  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

inaries  and  colleges  and  schools  and  asy¬ 
lums  and  hospitals,  all  in  the  name  of  Je¬ 
sus  Christ.  We  have  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients  with  the  genius  and  the  energy 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  No  people  ever 
sat  better  clothed,  with  better  brains,  and 
listened  in  their  churches  to  words  of 
more  profound  wisdom  than  we  of  today. 
We  have  our  pray  nights  and  our  play 
nights,  and  a  society  for  almost  every  pur¬ 
pose  under  heaven.  We  found  our  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Associations;  and  then 
in  a  few  short  years  it  seems  in  many  a 
place  as  if  they  had  turned  to  the  purpose 
of  culturing  men’s  bodies,  rather  than 
saving  their  souls.  The  great  Christian 
Endeavor  movement  springs  up  in  a 
night;  and  yet  there  are  many  spiritual 
souls  that  thank  God  for  all  that  has  been 
done  and  is  being  done  by  this  great  move¬ 
ment,  that  are  tonight  in  deep  spiritual 
travail  that  the  work  which  God  gives  you 
to  do  as  a  society  may  be  made  and  kept 
spiritual  in  all  its  aims  and  methods  and 
developments.  We  have  our  vast  mission¬ 
ary  equipment,  so  that  today  six  thousand 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


II 


missionaries  of  Jesus  Christ  have  been 
telling  the  story  of  the  cross;  but  still 
Ethiopia  stretches  out  her  hands  in  vain 
unto  God,  and  the  heathen  in  his  blind¬ 
ness  bows  down  to  wood  and  stone.  The 
church  of  God  needs  something,  the 
church  of  God  must  have  something  more 
than  she  has  today,  with  all  her  prestige 
and  all  her  energy.  She  needs  the  upper 
chamber,  she  needs  the  tarrying  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  she  needs  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  she  needs  a  continued  Pentecost; 
and  nothing  less  than  this  can  bring  to 
her  the  slightest  possible  particle  of  power. 

If  Christianity  today  is  independent  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  let  us  state  it  plainly. 

Nay,  let  us  state  the  contrary,  "If  there 
were  a  religion  today  that  had  the  doc¬ 
trines  and  all  the  ordinances  of  the  New 
Testament  and  yet  without  the  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  would  not  be 
Christianity; "  it  would  be  something 
else.  What  is  needed  is  the  power 
that  came  at  Pentecost  to  speak  to  men  in 
their  own  tongues,  until  you  can  touch 
the  proud  man  and  the  sensual  man,  the 


12 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


weak  man  and  the  avaricious  man,  as  you 
speak  to  him  in  the  words  of  the  tongue 
that  came  at  Pentecost. 

There  is  no  more  fallacious  saying  than 
that  “Truth  is  mighty  and  must  prevail.” 
Truth  is  not  mighty.  Men  crucified  the 
One  who  justly  said:  “I  am  the  Truth.” 
No  word  of  our  own  poet  was  ever  truer 
than  when  he  said  that  truth  was — 

“ — forever  on  the  scaffold, 

Vvrong  forever  on  the  throne. 

Vet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future. 

And  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow. 

Keeping  watch  above  His  own.” 

The  power  is  not  in  the  truth.  The 
power  is  not  in  the  Bible.  The  power  is 
in  God,  as  manifested  to  us  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. — “The  sword  of  the  Spirit”  is  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit^  and  without  the  Spir¬ 
it’s  hand  it  is  as  useless  as  any  other 
handless  sword.  Nay,  more,  it  will  be 
turned  against  the  impious  hand  that 
touches  it  save  in  the  power  and  mission 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

And  yet  God  has  not  left  Himself  with¬ 
out  witness.  “The  eyes  of  the  Lord  ru7j 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


13 


to  and  fro  throughout  the  whole  earth  to 
show  Himself  strong  in  behalf  of  them 
whose  heart  is  perfect  toward  Him,”  and 
He  has  found  such  people.  He  found 
that  man,  Luther — Oh,  how  He  looked 
through  those  dark  centuries  until  He 
found  him;  and  when  He  found  him,  He 
took  this  man  and  hurled  him  like  a 
thunderbolt  until  He  had  brought  to  noth¬ 
ing  the  might  and  the  wisdom  of  the 
impious  blasphemers  and  hypocrites  of 
that  day.  God  looked  for  such  a  man  in 
England  until  he  found  John  Wesley,  and 
gave  him  his  half  a  million — nay,  his  tens 
of  millions,  of  souls  for  his  spiritual  con¬ 
fidence  in  Jesus  Christ.  God  looked  for 
such  a  man  until  he  found  Whitefield — a 
man  destitute  of  much,  but  having  a  voice 
that  was  used  as  God’s  voice,  and  the 
tongue  of  fire  touched  and  burned  and 
melted  men  until,  by  the  tens  of  thousands, 
they  turned  unto  God.  He  looked  for 
such  a  man  until  he  found  Finney.  There 
was  a  time  when  Mr.  Finney  came  into 
one  of  the  factories  at  New  York  Mills,  near 
Utica.  As  he  came  near  the  place  where 


14  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

two  girls  were  employed  trying  to  mend 
a  thread  they  began  to  laugh.  As  he 
came  nearer,  they  began  to  cry  and  could 
not  go  on  with  their  work,  their  hands 
trembled  so.  This  man  of  God  came 
nearer  to  them  and  they  sank  down  upon 
the  seats  before  them,  while  the  tears 
rained  down  their  faces,  so  mightily  were 
they  convicted  of  their  sin  by  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Others  were  touched 
by  the  sight.  The  proprietor  of  the  mill, 
who  was  present,  though  an  unconverted 
man,  said  to  the  superintendent;  “Stop 
the  mill;  it  is  more  important  that  our 
souls  shall  be  saved  than  this  factory 
should  run.”  The  gate  was  immediately 
shut  down,  and  the  work  stopped.  A 
great  and  powerful  meeting  was  held  in 
the  place  at  once  and  there  that  day,  by 
the  spiritual  contact  of  the  presence  of 
that  man  of  God,  there  were  three  or 
four  hundred  souls  crying  out:  “God  be 
merciful  to  us  sinners.” 

When  I  was  a  pastor,  one  of  my  parish¬ 
ioners  was  the  venerable  Dr.  Labaree, 
who  was  for  many  years  president  of  Mid- 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  15 

dlebury  college.  He  told  me  that  fifty 
years  ago,  when  he  was  a  boy  in  Phillips 
academy,  at  Andover,  there  was  a  young 
man  there  who  was  so  stupid  that  he  could 
not  pass  the  examinations.  He  staid  there 
until  some  of  his  fellow-students  had  gone 
out  and  taken  the  college  course  and  come 
back  to  the  theological  seminary  across 
the  way.  And  yet  that  young  man,  so 
stupid  that  he  could  not  be  admitted  to 
any  college  in  the  land,  had  more  spiritual 
power  than  all  the  rest  of  the  students  that 
were  in  the  academy  with  him.  He  had 
no  thought  but  of  God,  and  he  was  filled 
with  Almighty  God.  After  a  while  the 
professors  thought  that,  as  he  seemed  so 
consecrated,  they  would  put  a  parenthesis 
around  the  college  and  take  him  into  the 
theological  seminary.  They  thought 
that  perhaps  he  would  have  a  natural 
taste  for  systematic  theology,  church  his¬ 
tory,  Hebrew  and  all  the  rest  of  it;  but, 
poor  fellow,  it  was  all  Hebrew  to  him. 
And  yet  that  man  in  the  theological  sem¬ 
inary  was  used  to  do  more  for  God  than 
all  the  theological  students  and  all  the 


f6  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

professors  and  all  the  ministers  and  all 
the  church  people  in  all  the  town  of  An¬ 
dover.  He  went  down  to  a  little  factory 
village  and  started  a  Sunday  School,  and 
there  thirty  or  forty  people  turned  to 
God.  He  started  another,  and  there  a 
score  or  more  of  people  came  to  Christ. 
He  went  over  to  Lawrence  and  founded  a 
Sunday  School  in  that  city  that  I  believe 
to-day  has  grown  to  be  a  flourishing  and 
powerful  church.  When  the  time  came 
for  the  students  to  leave  Andover  for  their 
summer  vacation,  there  came  a  sum¬ 
mons  from  a  place  in  New  Hampshire — 
no;  it  was  not  from  a  place;  it  was  from 
one  woman.  She  said.  *'I  am  the  only 
person  in  this  town  that  believes  in  God. 
We  have  no  Bible;  we  have  no  Sabbath, 
and  we  have  no  God.  Can  you  not  send 
some  one  to  us  from  your  seminary  who 
will  preach  to  us  the  word  of  life?”  No 
one  of  the  students  wanted  to  go,  except 
this  man,  and  he  thought  it  was  just  the 
thing  for  which  he  had  been  waiting.  The 
professors  did  not  know  whether  to  license 
him  or  not;  but  they  finally  concluded 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  17 

that  he  could  not  do  a  great  deal  of  harm 
in  six  months,  and  so  he  was  licensed  for 
six  months  and  sent  into  that  town.  He 
died  soon  after;  but — and  I  give  you  this 
on  the  word  of  President  Labaree — he  did 
not  die  until  he  had  won  to  Jesus  Christ 
every  man  and  woman  and  child  in  that 
township  with  the  exception  of  one  man, 
and  he  moved  away  soon  after. 

The  question  that  concerns  us  in  this 
connection  is  this:  Are  these  exception¬ 
al  cases,  or  are  they  given  to  us  as 
examples?  Here  is  what  ;\he  greatest 
preacher  said:  “I  am  the  least  of  the 
apostles;  I  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an 
apostle  because  I  persecuted  the  church 
of  God;  but  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am 
what  I  am,  and  that  grace  which  was  be¬ 
stowed  upon  me  was  not  in  vain,  for  I  la¬ 
bored  more  abundantly  than  they  all ;  and 
yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God,  which 
was  with  me.”  And  this  apostle  says  to 
us  to-day:  “God  is  able  to  make  all  grace 
abound  toward  you,  that  ye  always,  hav¬ 
ing  all  sufficiency  in  all  things,  may 
abound  unto  every  good  work.” 


1 8  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

The  next  question  concerns  the  charac' 
teristics  of  spiritual  power.  What  is  it? 
It  is  nothing  less  than  the  life  of  God 
manifested  through  human  character. 
There  is  no  power  that  can  create  life  ex¬ 
cept  life;  and  this  power  finds  its  great¬ 
est  exemplification  in  the  life  and  words 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  spoke  those  words 
two  thousand  years  ago,  and  they  have 
been  sown  and  re-sown  a  million  times, 
and  yet  they  are  vital  for  the  production 
of  life  to-day.  His  power  consisted  in  His 
consecration.  It  consisted  in  the  fact  that 
He  came  not  to  do  His  own  will  but  the 
will  of  Him  who  sent  Him,  and  so  it 
pleased  the  Father  to  be  glorified  in  the 
Son.  This  is  the  One  who  has  said  to  us: 
"Greater  works  than  I  have  done  shall  ye 
do,"  and  "Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  My 
name  that  will  I  do.”  "Without  Me 
ye  can  do  nothing,” — not  something, 
not  little;  "Ye  can  do  nothing."  Paul 
says:  "I  can  do  all  things,  through 

Christ,  which  strengtheneth  me.”  "As 
the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself  ex¬ 
cept  it  abide  in  the  vine,  no  more  can  ye 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  19 

except  ye  abide  in  Me.”  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  not  a  freak  of  the  Divine  nature.  He 
is  the  Divine  nature  itself  manifested  in 
power,  in  proportion  as  God  is  manifest¬ 
ed  in  character  and  in  life.  Andrew  Mur¬ 
ray,  one  of  the  most  spiritual  writers  of 
our  time,  has  well  said;  "We  want  to 
get  possession  of  the  power  and  use  it. 
God  wants  the  power  to  get  possession  or 
us  and  use  us.  If  we  give  ourselves  to 
the  power  to  rule  in  us,  the  power  will 
give  itself  to  us  to  rule  through  us.*'  The 
soldier  joins  the  army  not  to  get  power 
but  that  the  nation’s  power  may  be  man¬ 
ifested  in  him  and  through  him.  There 
is  no  more  distressing  sign  at  this  day 
than  that  so  many  people  are  ready  to 
stand  up  in  their  places — consecrated  peo¬ 
ple  in  a  measure — and  say  :  'T  want  to 
be  used.”  It  may  be  just  as  cursed  an 
ambition  to  want  to  be  used  as  to  want  to 
have  money  or  to  want  to  have  one’s  pride 
fulfilled.  What  you  and  I  need  to  have  as 
an  ambition  is  not  to  be  used,  buij  to  hs 
filled.  The  highest  place  is  not  that  of 
the  busy  servant ;  it  is  that  of  the  waiting 


20 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


servant;  it  is  that  of  the  standing  servant 
Elijah  used  to  call  himself  the  standing 
servant  of  God.  “As  the  Lord  God  liv- 
eth, ”  he  would  say,  “before  whom  I  stand.” 
In  the  Oriental  countries  to-day,  princes 
or  men  of  wealth,  will  have  at  least  one 
servant  who  always  stands  erect  in  his 
master’s  presence,  in  order  that  when  he 
speaks  the  servant  need  not  even  arise  in 
order  to  be  ready  to  do  his  bidding” 
Elijah  meant  that  he  never  sat  down 
in  God’s  presence,  in  order  that  when 
God  spoke  he  might  run  with  the  greater 
celerity.  If  I  were  a  merchant  with  such 
a  business  that  I  had  to  employ  S'bVferal 
errand  boys,  I  should  not  regard  that  boy 
as  the  most  helpful  or  effective,  who  was 
continually  leaving  his  place  and  running 
to  me  with  the  request  that  I  should  use 
him.  The  thing  that  I  would  want  from 
those  boys  would  be  that  they  should  be 
ready  to  do  what  I  told  them  to  do — noth¬ 
ing  more  and  nothing  less.  If  they  tried 
to  do  more,  or  even  wanted  to  do  more, 
they  would  be  as  harmful  as  though  they 
wanted  or  tried  to  do  less. 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


21 


“The  strong  man’s  strength  to  toil  for  Christ, 
The  fervent  preacher’s  skill, 
i  sometimes  wish;  but  better  far 
To  be  just  what  God  will. 

No  service  in  itself  is  small. 

None  great,  through  earth  it  fill; 

But  that  is  small  that  seeks  its  own, 

And  great  that  seeks  God’s  will.” 

You  may  remember  the  story  of  the 
blowing  up  of  the  rocks  that  were  in  the 
channel  called  Hell  Gate,  in  the  East  Riv¬ 
er,  that  separates  Long  Island  sound  from 
the  ocean.  General  Newton  worked  for 
years  and  years  until  at  last  he  had  the 
cavern  made  and  stored  with  explosives, 
and  the  line,  the  magic  wire,  run  from  the 
explosives  to  the  bank.  Then,  sitting 
upon  the  bank,  he  called  to  him  his 
daughter  Mary,  a  little  child  two  years  of 
age,  and  taking  her  upon  his  lap  he  told 
her  to  press  that  magic  button.  The  lit¬ 
tle  girl  put  forth  her  hand  and  pressed 
upon  the  button  at  her  father^  s  word,  and 
instantly  there  came  the  mighty  sound, 
the  upheaval  of  the  earth,  and  rocks 
and  water,  and  the  channel  was  par¬ 
tially  free.  Helplessness  itself  was  that 


22 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


little  maiden,  but  power  itself  was  the 
father  on  whose  knee  she  rested.  Oh, 
child  of  utter  weakness,  if  thou  wouldst 
but  place  thyself  within  the  Father’s 
love,  the  Father’s  thought,  the  Father’s 
plan,  then  indeed  would  the  Father’s 
power  flow  through  thy  weakness  until 
thou  shouldst  rend  the  rocks  of  pride  and 
prejudice  and  passion;  and  even  the  gates 
of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  thee. 

We  come  now  to  the  very  last  question, 
and  I  beg  of  you  to  listen  to  it:  How 
can  we  get  spiritual  power?  We  cannot 
GET  IT.  No  man  ever  possessed  it;  no 
man  ever  owned  it;  no  man  ever  used  it. 
It  is  a  question,  not  of  our  getting  power, 
but  of  God  getting  us;  not  of  our  us¬ 
ing  God,  but  of  God  using  us.  The  dis¬ 
ciples  were  not  told  to  pray  for  power  nor 
to  seek  for  power.  They  were  told  to 
wait  for  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  know  that 
they  waited  for  ten  days  and  then  the 
Holy  Ghost  came.  What  did  they  do  in 
those  ten  days?  What  does  “waiting" 
mean?  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  us  as 
we  waited  at  Gardner,  Massachusetts,  for 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  23 

our  train — the  excursion  train,  that  was 
half  an  hour  late.  We  stood  upon  the 
track,  a  score  or  more,  and  looked  down 
the  iron  rail  to  see  if  the  train  was  not 
coming.  If  you  had  asked  some  of  us  to 
go  across  the  street  to  get  a  hundred  dol¬ 
lars,  I  do  not  believe  that  we  would  have 
done  it.  We  would  not  move;  we  must 
stay  there;  we  were  doing  just  one  thing, 
and  it  is  the  one  thing  with  which  we 
cannot  do  anything  else — we  were  wait" 
ing.  The  most  intense  occupation  in 
the  universe  is  to  wait.  To  wait  for  the 
Holy  Ghost  is,  not  to  do  nothing,  but  it 
is  to  wait, — not  having  the  possibility  of 
anything  else  touching  the  mind  with  any 
allurement;  it  is  to  wait  for  God.  Some 
one  has  said  that  the  disciples  had  to 
wait  ten  days,  and  that  there  were  ten  days 
in  which  they  were  being  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.  That  is  a  mistake.  They 
were  not  waiting  ten  days  to  be  filled; 
they  were  waiting  to  be  emptied.  Dr. 
Gordon  has  reminded  us  that  the  wind 
always  blows  toward  a  vacuum.  If  you 
could  exhaust  the  air  from  this  great  tab* 


24  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

ernacle  to-night,  and  then  could  make  a 
crevice  in  it,  you  would  hear  the  wind 
come  whistling  in.  And  so,  in  that  upper 
chamber,  the  disciples  were  being  emp¬ 
tied  and  a  vacuum  was  being  made.  The 
son  of  thunder  was  emptied  of  the  thun¬ 
der,  that  he  might  be  filled  with  love. 
The  doubting  Thomas  was  emptied  of  his 
doubt  that  he  might  be  filled  with  light. 
The  presumptuous  and  vacillating  Peter 
was  emptied  of  his  presumption  and  his 
fickleness  that  he  might  be  filled  with  all 
the  power  of  God.  And  then  there  came 
the  sound  as  of  a  mighty  rushing  wind, 
and  God  came  upon  them  and  used  them. 

A  great  mesmerist  told  me  one  day 
that  the  one  qualification  under  which 
he  could  mesmerize  people  was  that  they 
should  have  vacant  minds.  If  a  man 
might  pour  his  mind  into  the  vacant 
mind  of  another  creature  until  he  should 
think  his  thought  and  do  his  will,  what 
might  not  God  do  if  only  He  could  have 
vacant  spirits  into  which  He  could  pour 
Himself.  The  great  condition  of  power 
is  to  be  emptied  of  self  and  to  be  filled 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  25 

with  God;  to  renounce  self  and  to  appro¬ 
priate  God;  to  be  dead  unto  self  but  to 
be  alive  unto  God  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  “God  has  chosen  the  foolish 
things  of  this  world  to  confound  the 
things  that  are  wise,  and  God  has  chosen 
the  weak  things  of  this  world  to  con¬ 
found  the  things  that  are  mighty,  and  the 
base  things  of  this  world  and  things  that 
are  despised  hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and 
things  that  are  not,  to  bring  to  naught 
things  that  are."  "Things  that  are  not,*' 
hath  God  chosen.  That  was  why  He 
chose  Jesus  Christ,  who  "made  himself  of 
no  reputation,"  and  became  obedient  un¬ 
to  death,  as  he  humbled  himself ;  there¬ 
fore,  hath  God  highly  exalted  Him,  and 
that  is  the  only  way  that  God  will  ever 
exalt  any  one  of  us.  It  was  only  when 
Luther  could  say:  "Martin  Luther  does 
not  live  here:  Jesus  Christ  lives  here," 
that  God  could  use  Luther.  And  it  was 
only  as  Paul  could  say:  "I  am  crucified 
with  Christ,  nevertheless  I  live,  and  yet 
no  longer  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me" 
that  Paul  could  be  used  of  God.  It  is 


26 


POWER  FROM  ON  HlOfi. 


only  as  you  and  I  can  say  the  same  that  he 
can  use  us,  even  in  the  faintest  degree. 

I  used  to  pray  for  power.  I  thank  God 
that  I  never  pray  for  power  now.  I  used  to 
pray  for  power  alone,  and  then,  I  prayed 
for  power  with  humility,  and  then,  for 
power  through  humilit}^;  but  I  thank 
God  that  I  came  to  learn  at  last  this 
one  thing,  that  the  only  prayer  that  touch¬ 
es  power  will  be  the  prayer  that  says: 
"Thy  will  be  done  in  me,  even  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven."  The  place  of  privilege 
where  we  can  say:  "God  is  mine,”  is 
only  where  we  can  say:  "I  am  His;" 
and  we  cannot  truly  say :  "Whom  I  serve," 
until  we  have  said:  "Whose  I  am."  Let 
God  take  us;  let  us  be  willing  to  do  the 
will  of  God,  and  He  will  lead  us  to  a 
mighty  faith.  And  when  you  shall  come 
to  that  place  where  you  seek  not  your 
own,  but  where  your  heart  is  set  on  God 
and  where  the  eyes  of  God  as  they  run  to 
and  fro  throughout  all  the  earth  shall  see 
you,  then  there  shall  come  to  you  the 
mighty  power  of  an  appropriating  faith 
until  you  shall  reach  np  and  take  hold  on  all 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  27 

the  fullness  of  God.  You  will  be  God’s; 
God  will  be  yours;  all  that  there  is  of 
God  will  be  poured  into  you — nothing 
held  back — nothing  of  wisdom,  nothing 
of  love,  nothing  of  tenderness,  nothing  of 
power  —  all  will  be  yours — all  things, 
whether  Paul  or  Apollos  or  Peter  or  the 
world  or  life  or  death  or  things  present 
or  things  to  come,  all  will  be  yours;  and 
you  may  go  forth  without  one  particle  of 
hesitation  to  do  as  the  one  of  old  did  in 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  “to  be  set 
over  kingdoms,  to  root  out,  to  pull  down, 
to  destroy,  to  overthrow,  and  to  build  and 
to  plant.  ’’ 

Some  of  you  have  seen  the  great  picture 
that  was  painted  by  Muncakszy  of  the 
Christ.  That  picture  was  being  exhibit¬ 
ed  in  Canada,  at  Toronto,  I  think,  and 
there  came  a  rude,  rough,  wicked  sailor 
to  see  it.  He  entered  the  room  at  the 
time  of  day  when  there  were  no  others 
there;  and  paying  his  money  to  the  wom¬ 
an  who  sat  inside  the  door,  he  came  in 

and  stood  for  a  moment,  looking  at  the 
canvas  as  though  he  would  glance  at  it 


28  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

and  go  away.  But  as  he  looked,  he  could 
not  turn.  He  stood  there  with  his  eyes 
fixed  on  that  central  figure  of  majesty  and 
love.  In  a  few  moments,  he  took  off  his 
hat  and  let  it  fall  upon  the  floor.  After 
a  few  moments  more  he  sat  down  upon  a 
seat,  and  then  he  reached  down  and  picked 
up  a  booxi  chat  described  the  picture,  and 
began  to  read ;  and  every  few  seconds  his 
eyes  would  turn  toward  the  canvas  and 
toward  the  figure  of  Christ.  The  lady 
who  sat  by  the  door  saw  him  lift  up  his 
hand  and  wipe  away  some  tears.  Still  he 
sat;  five,  ten,  fifteen,  sixty  minutes  went 
by,  and  still  the  man  sat  there  as  though 
he  could  not  stir.  At  last  he  rose,  and 
coming  softly  and  reverently  toward  the 
door,  he  hesitated,  to  take  one  last  look, 
and  said  to  the  woman  who  sat  there: 
“Madam;  I  am  a  rough,  wicked  sailor; 
I  have  never  believed  in  Christ;  I  have 
never  used  His  name  except  in  an  oath; 
but  I  have  a  Christian  mother,  and  my 
old  mother  begged  me  today  before  I 
went  to  sea,  to  go  and  look  at  the  picture 
of  the  Christ.  To  oblige  her  I  said  I 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  29 

would  come  and  I  have  come.  I  did  not 
believe  that  anybody  believed  in  Christ; 
but  as  I  have  looked  at  that  form  and  that 
face  I  have  thought  that  some  man  must 
have  believed  in  Him,  and  it  has  touched 
me,  and  I  have  come  to  believe  in  Him, 
too.  I  am  going  out  from  this  time  to  be 
a  believer  in  Jesus  Christ  and  a  fo.  .owei 
of  His.”  Oh,  beloved,  as  I  heard  that 
story,  the  tears  came  unbidden  to  my 
eyes,  and  my  heart  glowed  with  a  mighty 
longing.  I  thought  if  a  poor,  weak  man, 
living  himself  in  a  godless  land,  could 
take  his  brush  and  preach  on  canvas, 
and  cause  our  Christ  to  glow  upon  it, 
until  a  rough,  rude,  wicked,  licentious 
man  should  be  won  to  believe  in  Him, 
what  might  not  my  God  do  if  he  might 
paint  Christ  in  me — nay,  if  he  might 
reproduce  Christ  in  a  human  life,  that 
the  life  might  be  Christas  and  that  men 
might  come  to  believe  on  Him. 

Dr.  Field  has  given  us  a  picture  which 
has  been  oft  repeated,  of  the  lighting  of 
the  torches  in  the  holy  sepulchre  at  Eas¬ 
ter  time.  The  building  is  crowded ;  I  sup- 


30  POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 

pose,  by  a  thousand  or  more  of  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Greek  church.  The  patriarch 
comes.  All  is  darkness;  but  they  make 
wa}^  in  the  throng  as  he  passes  through. 
He  goes  through  the  curtain,  into  the 
place  where  the  body  of  Jesus  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  lain,  and  waits.  Not  a 
word,  not  a  sound,  scarcely  a  breath;  a 
full  hour  passes  by,  and  the  breath¬ 
less  throng  wait  there  in  the  great  dark¬ 
ness.  Suddenly  there  is  a  movement. 
Suddenly  they  see  a  spark,  and  out  comes 
the  patriarch  from  the  sepulchre,  out  from 
the  darkness,  bringing  with  him  light,  a 
torch  that  is  lighted.  Instantly  there  are 
a  hundred  hands  stretched  out  for  it,  and 
they  take  the  torch  and  pass  it  from  hand 
to  hand;  torches  are  stretched  out  until 
they  reach  it  and  are  kindled  from  it,  un¬ 
til  a  thousand  torches  burn  with  the  light 
that  comes  from  the  tomb  of  Christ.  Out 
into  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  out  into  the 
highways  and  byways  they  go,  and  other 
torches  are  lighted  from  theirs  until  the 
whole  land  glows  with  the  fire  that  comes 
from  the  tomb  of  the  Savior.  In  these 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH.  31 

closing  moments  let  me  ask  you  to  come 
with  me  into  the  place  of  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.  May  God  kill  the  ambition  in  us, 
the  selfishness,  the  pride,  the  world  in 
us,  until  we  shall  be  crucified  with  Christ. 
May  the  very  One  that  laid  in  that  sepul¬ 
chre  light  our  torches  to-night  and  hold 
His  torch  out  to  this  great  throng  until 
the  light  of  God  and  the  tongue  of  fire 
shall  touch  you,  and  you,  and  you,  and 
you,  that  we  may  go  out  into  the  streets 
of  this  city  and  into  this  great  state  and 
along  these  rivers  and  the  iron  highways, 
to  the  north,  the  south,  the  east,  the  west, 
to  Maine,  to  California;  to  Texas,  to  Can¬ 
ada — nay,  until  we  go  across  the  sea  to  In¬ 
dia,  to  Africa,  to  the  isles  of  the  sea,  and 
the  whole  world  shall  be  touched  with  the 
light  of  God  and  the  fire  of  Pentecost 
from  the  grave  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  death  of  self  and  the  life  of  God  I 
pray  may  come  unto  us  now,  and  as  we 
go,  let  us  go  with  bowed  heads,  saying 
reverently:  “Not  unto  us,  not  unto  us, 
but  unto  Thy  name  give  glory,”  “it  is  not 
by  might,  not  by  power,  but  by  Thy  Spir- 


32 


POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH. 


it,  oh,  Thou  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  as  we 
go,  let  us  go  with  uplifted  hearts,  sing¬ 
ing  our  doxology,  "Thine  is  the  kingdom, 
and  the  power  and  the  glory,  forever  and 
ever.  Amen." 


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